TOKYO (Reuters) – Toshiba said on Thursday that the $14 billion (13.1 billion euros) takeover bid launched by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) had been successful , which paves the way for the withdrawal of the Japanese industrial conglomerate from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The consortium led by JIP received 78.65% of Toshiba’s shares, giving it a majority of more than two-thirds, enough to oust the other shareholders.
The operation, one of the largest globally since the start of the year, places Toshiba, whose activities range from nuclear energy to defense technologies, in the hands of Japanese investors, after years of conflicts with foreign activist investors.
Toshiba is expected to be delisted in December.
The group announced a deal with JIP in March after weeks of discussions over a takeover offer that valued the conglomerate at 2 trillion yen and, although some shareholders were unhappy with the price, Toshiba argued that it would not There was no prospect of a superior or competing offer.
“We are deeply grateful to many of our shareholders for understanding the company’s position,” Taro Shimada, Toshiba’s chief executive, said in a statement Thursday.
JIP, which includes 20 Japanese companies including chipmaker Rohm, financial services company Orix and Chubu Electric Power, plans to retain chief executive Shimada.
Toshiba has been in turmoil since 2015 due to accounting and corporate governance scandals, heavy losses as well as friction with activist shareholders that led to a strategic review.
(Reporting Makiko Yamazaki; Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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